John Davidson

Message:

I have a php page that allowes users to add new stock to a warehouse. On the page the user can select a location (+/- 900 records), the product (+/- 700 records), the connected purchase order (1500+/- records) and the customer order (+/- 3000 records). All records are loaded in the same way in a select function (example for locations):

<select data-live-search='true' required  class='selectpicker form-control border' name='wa_ra_id' value="<?php echo isset($_POST['wa_ra_id']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['wa_ra_id'], ENT_QUOTES) : "";  ?>">

      <option selected="true" disabled="disabled" value="">Select rack...</option>

                <?php



                    $database = new Database();

                    $db = $database->getConnection();



                            $query = "SELECT

                               ra_id,

                               ra_number,

                               ra_section,

                               ra_zone

                            FROM racks

                            ORDER BY ra_number";



                            $stmt = $db->prepare($query);

                            $stmt->execute();



                            while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)){

                                    extract($row);

                                    echo "<option value='{$ra_id}'>{$ra_number}{$ra_section}{$ra_zone}</option>";

                            }

                ?>

</select> 

The current problem is the load time. It currently takes between 11000 and 12000ms to load while the queryload time is 0.020ms in mysql for each query. Is there a way to decrease the loading time in php?

---

My Answer:
One way to decrease the loading time in PHP is to optimize the way you are fetching and displaying the data. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Use AJAX: Instead of loading all the data at once, you can use AJAX to load the data dynamically as the user interacts with the dropdowns. This way, only the necessary data will be fetched from the server, reducing the load time.

2. Implement pagination: If loading all the records at once is necessary, you can implement pagination to load the data in smaller chunks. This will reduce the amount of data being loaded at once and improve the loading time.

3. Use caching: You can cache the query results using tools like Memcached or Redis to reduce the load time for subsequent requests. This way, the data will be fetched from the cache instead of the database, improving performance.

4. Optimize the database queries: Make sure that your database queries are optimized and using indexes where necessary. This will help reduce the query execution time and improve overall performance.

5. Consider using a more efficient way to fetch and display the data, such as using a data table plugin like DataTables, which provides features like server-side processing and lazy loading to improve performance.

By implementing these suggestions, you should be able to decrease the loading time of your dropdowns in PHP.